Why the Left still doesn't get Trump?

Donald Trump is the name that never leaves our lips. It’s so intimate in a way. Trump in our head. Trump in our words. Trump in our frustrations. 

The Left rejects Trump for so many good reasons. 

Trump is:

·     Narcissistic

·     Greedy

·     Lacks empathy

·     Ignores climate degradation

·     Enriches the wealthy

All these are valid, but do not explain Trumps incredible ability to control the conversation. The pundits predicted he would lose hugely to Hillary Clinton. The pundits then told Trump to stop using Twitter. Of course he uses Twitter brilliantly.

The Left keeps insisting, on MSNBC, that his base is limited in number. At this point Trump supporters far outweigh any presidential candidiate emerging from the Democratic party. That could change quickly but time will tell. 

The Democrats need to understand Trump better if they intend to win in 2020.

The key to Trump—he’s not a literary man. We know he doesn’t like to read or ponder documents presented by his security analysts, etc.. What does Trump do that is so effective?

Let’s turn to the master media guru Marshall McLuhan to understand Trump better. Trump is a master of TV—the power of its images and the all-at-once nature of digital communications. 

Marshall McLuhan wrote in the 60s and 70s but understood the Internet before it existed. He pointed out that the “literary man” would be baffled by the speed and intimacy of our communications and the non-linear characteristics of our present day media environment. 

Communication now has more in common with villagers sitting around the campfire than with a NY Times article. The conversation is full of emotion and immediacy, and seems to be quite a bit of lying and propagandizing involved as well. This is McLuhan’s global village and Marshall did not promise it would be peaceful or pleasant. 

McLuhan had grave misgivings about the future of our electronic technology. Seems like many now recognize the downside of all this connectivity. But we must live with it and study it to maintain any sense of personal control.

Here is what Marshall McLuhan wrote in the Saturday Evening Post (August 10, 1968):

“But in a deep sense, TV bypasses the ballot box as a means of creating political “representatives.” TV is not concerned with views or interests or issues. It is a maker and finder of images that ride over all points ov view and over all age-groups as well. The TV image ends all national and party politics.

“… An all-at-once world, fashioned by electric information, demands a candidate full of puns and unexpected nuances. Such a man is one who knows so much about the contemporary interface of all cultures that he cannot possibly be deluded by any earnest regard for any them. The new changes are not moral but technological.”

Hope that helps! Go Dems! Remember this is not moral war—but a communications battle. Better learn the new technology!

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New York runs Amazon out of town .... what bugs me!

What bugs me about NYC running Amazon out of town... Let me tell you what I know as an ex-New Yorker. New York is full of loud mouth, know-it-all types... until, like with the Amazon screw-up, results prove maybe they were wrong all along. 

AOC, Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, looked very sheepish when reporters stopped her in the halls of Congress with Amazon questions. She called it a victory for "every day people" against Jeff Bezos. She affirmed that the stood up to the richest man in the world. 

Stood up to Bezos? Bezos took his ball and moved the game to Nashville, TN and Arlington, Virginia. He walked away from the deal when it looked like New York politicians, etc.,, prepared themselves to rake him over the coals. Now they can fight and curse among themselves and put up billboards in Times Square attacking possibly the stupidest political decision ever made.

Giving up 25,000 jobs and $27 billion in projected income does not sound like a victory. Smells more like regret. New York governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill Deblasio of NYC, more seasoned Democrats, were excited to offer Amazon a deal. They wanted to bring jobs to Queens, NY and the average salaries were said to be upwards of $150,000 per year. That wasn't good enough

I tried to delve into the protests against Amazon from the left and the roots of their discontent. Maybe it's connected to the way New York City is actually thriving these days with a combination of immigrant energy and white flight back to the city.

I wondered if a weird nostalgia for the old New York can be the cause for leftist confusion. In the 50s, when I was a kid in Manhattan, the city felt polluted with smokestack industry, along with crowded streets and noisy traffic. My family was part of the white flight to the suburbs. The city became increasingly dangerous and unappealing through the 60s and 70s.

Now gentrification has flip-flopped the equation and maybe that helps explain people like AOC. They may feel things are too good-- too many rich people and young, educated types moving into the city and crowding the subways.

Amazon may symbolize more prosperous folks sipping lattes and crowding the subways. But Amazon jobs had potential for low-skill and high-skill employment-- and that's what bugs me!

You would have had construction jobs and low skill jobs available to the many people. Amazon wanted to assist with New York's infrastructure, including education. Some of those Queens College students would have had opportunities to put new found programming skills to use-- and raise themselves economically.

The deed is done. New Yorkers of various political persuasions have only to dry their eyes and point the fingers at each other to determine where the fault resides. 

I call it "being too smart for your own good."

New York City will go on and continue to prosper on its upward trajectory. 

Meanwhile we've got a New Yorker running the country. Trump did not win his own NY state but he looks formidable as a 2020 candidate. And the Democrats must evaluate their platform and decide if job creation is a plan they can support.

George Lakoff: exposing Donald Trump

Somebody finally pulled back the curtain on Donald J. Trump? Maybe Donald Trump has hypnotized the USA, maybe even the whole globe, with his crazy, brilliant tweets. At least somebody figured it out—and his name is George Lakoff, a retired UC Berkeley professor.

Lakoff looks like the cheery professor from Central Casting. He’s full of smiles and a nice tone of voice when he gets interviewed by Ari Melber, a MSNBC anchor. Lakoff smiles but doesn’t get fooled by Trump. He acknowledges Trump is always strategic in his tweeting. And Trump, above all, is a salesman.

Lakoff explains how Trump’s marketing genius works. There are four distinct types of tweets, according to the good professor:

Trump’s Tweets

1)   Preemptive framing

2)   Diversion

3)   Deflection

4)   Trial balloons

The mob howls for Trump to put down his cellphone. How absurd? Trump has the media, his liberal antagonists, the world leaders, including our allies, hanging on his every word. Drop the tweeting... no way. That's like asking Paul Bunyan to get rid of the axe or telling Robin Hood to forget about the bow-and-arrow. 

But finally a TV-talking head reveals how Trump works his magic. George Lakoff, a retired UC Berkeley linguistics professor, sets himself apart by acknowledging that Donald Trump is completely skillful in the execution of his tweets. 

Trumps tweets strategically. His rivals underestimate him. The liberal-minded MSNBC hosts , Ari Melber, Chris Matthews, Chris Hayes, Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O’Donnell, Brian Williams— promote the message for Trump.

Professor Lakoff does not underestimate Trump.Trump promotes himself and his brand with every statement he makes. They are full of hyperbole:

·      the President is the nation—

·      any leak threatens the security of the President

·      live by Trump’s metaphor—any leak is criminal, etc. unpatriotic

Lakoff goes further and points out that Democrats are always playing defense. They understand facts. The analysis is brilliant. Dems are great on policy but do not understand emotion. Democrats do not understand how the brain works. It’s all about emotion.

Republicans understand emotion. They turn the political debate into a morality play. But people vote on emotion, not the facts. Lakoff adds that Trump’s Tweets do not make him unpopular. His brand is not damaged. He has maintained a 37% approval rating, plus or minus 2%.

Lakoff sees Trump’s failing as the work of a cold heart.

Trump’s Trigger words

·      winning

·      putting down those below him—immigrants

·      wealthy above poor

Trump’s lack of compassion for others is a function of his narcissism. Biologists theorize on the inflexible nature of the narcissist, imagining the sources go beyond theories. Scientists found highly narcissistic people had less gray matter in the left anterior insula. That is the part of the brain linked to empathy.

Donald is just a cold-hearted money making machine. We are his customers—but he’s the one who is always right...

George Lakoff, bless his cheery brilliance-- revealed the Emperor, er, I mean... the President has no clothes. 

Hurricane Harvey: the good, the bad and everything in-between

Hurricane  Harvey set a new standard for natural disasters in the United States due to rain events. I heard a monsoon deluge in India and Bangladesh has been much worse in terms of loss of life, with deaths estimated at 1000. The Harvey death toll is at 45 casualties as I write this on Friday night.

My home in Austin, Texas has been spared the powerful rains and flooding experienced in Houston. We are only 150 miles from Houston but gained protection from a high pressure system in the atmosphere. The high pressure system from the west formed a wall which kept the storm parked over Houston, stalled in place and dumping monumental amounts of water on American's fourth largest city.

The near non-stop television coverage tells the story of Hurricane Harvey and  with great poignancy. Video footage of entire families wading through waist-deep water or being picked up by Good Samaritans in flat bottom boats reveals the best side of humanity. The outpouring of love and support across America has been a source of hope on the future our our nation. The cooperative effort to assist in Houston's recovery has transcended race, ethnic, religious, political and economic divisions. The Houston story may not provide an easy way out of our political partisanship, but the flotilla of citizens rescuing Houstonians in boats makes a powerful contrast to Charlottesville, Virginia, and its hurtful image of neo-Nazis muttering racist chants.

We can also learn much about our own bad habits from a storm most often referred to as "unprecedented." Unprecedented means never happened before. That's a key concept. We must try to explain how 50 inches of rain get dumped on a city. Houston's previous Biblical-style deluge, the Great Flood of 1935, produced only 15 inches of rain. Something has changed in 82 years, meteorologically speaking. We have turned the Gulf of Mexico into a much more efficient rain-making machine. Modern man loves his mechanical toys, many of them carbon producing, and has managed to raise the temperature of the oceans. Not an easy feat, and mainly accomplished in a century or two of industrialization.

There doesn't seem much hope for changing man's carbon-burning habits. I've heard about electric cars, etc., but I ain't that impressed. Sorry Elon Musk. One thing Democrats and Republicans agree on wholeheartedly is a passion for the automobile. With Port Arthur, Texas, home to the biggest oil refineries in the United States, temporarily shut down,  people form lines at Texas gas stations. The fear of going a day without gasoline is palpable and real.  I would not call the collective anxiety at near-panic levels a high level of consciousness regarding climate change.

If we locate an escape mechanism from mankind's deeply ingrained habits, the answer must lie in our better angels-- the side of humanity animated by the spirit of Houston. We need to rescue ourselves; the stresses of global climate change endanger us all though the poor seem to suffer the most.

No amount of money can refreeze a melted iceberg. The challenges lie ahead are daunting and Hurricane Harvey and Houston's suffering may work as the proverbial canary in the coal mine, our powerful message of warning. The coal mine analogy may add an element of ambiguity when it comes to understanding climate change-- coal mines only add to the problem. But we would do well to hold on to hurricane images: Katrina, Superstorm Sandy and now Harvey, images of cities turned into lakes. Not sure if it will be the fire next time or Noah's ark... but let's respect nature's ability to surprise and overwhelm us or the unprecedented will become all to common.

TV... bypasses the ballot box!

The TV image ends all national and party politics.

Way back in 1968, Marshall McLuhan predicted that "TV bypasses the ballot box" and "ends party politics."  

Everybody, including the talking heads, wonders "how did Trump make progress toward the Republican nomination without party support?" 

Saturday Evening Post (August 10, 1968)      

All of the Candidates are Asleep         

By: Marshall McLuhan


But in a deep sense, TV bypasses the ballot box as a means of creating political "representatives." TV is  not concerned with view or interests or issues. It is a maker and finder of images that ride over all points of view and over all age-groups as well. The TV image ends all national and party politics.